Relationships between women are often cast in binary terms, either as backstabbing competition behind the scenes or soft-filter best-friend-forever moments. Yet the simple truth about friendship is that it’s never simple: not for eight-year-olds acting out adulthood through rich Barbie fantasies, not for teens trying to bridge the chasm of racial and cultural divide, not for kid-free singles watching old friendships weaken with each new partner and child that happens to someone else. Yet, however problematic women’s relationships with one another can be, they can also be intense, intimate affairs, more steadfast than any romantic relationship and ultimately, more fulfilling. Secrets and Confidences is the first anthology to bypass the saccharine platitudes that make up most books on women’s friendships, and acknowledge the complex reality of relationships first exemplified by Mary and Rhoda, Lucy and Ethel, and now celebrated by shows like Sex and the City—relationships that exhibit jealousy and love, loyalty and despair, and more than a few pair of really good shoes.
